Planar light-wave circuits, also known as planar light-wave chips (PLCs), are optical devices wherein optical components and networks are disposed monolithically within a stack or stacks of optical thin films supported by a common mechanical substrate such as a semiconductor or glass wafer. PLCs are typically designed to provide specific transport or routing functions for use within fiber-optic communications networks. These networks are distributed over a multitude of geographically-dispersed terminals and commonly include transport between terminals via single-mode optical fibers.
Wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is a commonly employed technology within telecommunication systems that provides transmission of multiple optical signals on a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths to carry different signals. In the WDM system, each optical carrier signal is transmitted within a narrow wavelength band centered around a center wavelength. Such a band is commonly referred to as an optical channel with each channel characterized by a single center wavelength (λx).
The WDM system uses an interleaver to join the optical carrier signals together for transmission over the single optical fiber while a de-interleaver is used to split the optical carrier signals apart. The interleaver takes the optical signal having different channels and combines them for transmission over the single optical fiber. The de-interleaver performs the reverse application and splits the signal into multiple optical signals. In this regard, WDM systems allow capacity expansion of the network without having to lay out more optical fibers since capacity of a given link can be expanded by simply upgrading the interleavers and de-interleavers.
Optical filters serve as components in WDM systems that provide the signal processing functions needing in interleaving/de-interleaving, balancing of signal power, adding and/or dropping of channels, and the like.
The design goal of an optical filter for a WDM system application is to provide a passband having a wide, nearly flat top with minimum insertion loss and rapid rolloff on the band edges all the while minimizing chromatic dispersion across the passband.
One of the current practices within the art to minimize the amount of chromatic dispersion is through the use of two or more FIR filters cascaded together. By designing complimentary FIR filters with similar amplitude responses and opposite delay responses, chromatic dispersion is minimized. See, S. Cao, et al. “Interleaver Technology: Comparisons and Applications Requirements”, J. Lightwave Technol. Vol. 22, 281-289 (2004); See, U.S. Pat. No. 6,735,358 entitled, “Optical Multiplexer and Optical Demultiplexer”. However, the passbands of FIR filters do not provide the same desired characteristics of the wide, nearly flat top passband seen through the use of IIR filters.
Infinite-impulse response filters (IIR filters) are also currently being practiced in the art to provide the wide, nearly flat top passbands with high extinction ratios. See, Jinguji, K. et al. “Optical Half-Band Filter”, J. Lightwave Technol. Vol. 18, 252-259 (2000); See Wang, Qi, et al. “Design of 100/300 GHz optical interleaver with IIR architectures”, Optics Express, Vol. 13, (March 2005). However, there is difficulty in minimizing the chromatic dispersion across the passband.
Accordingly, an optical filter arrangement and method of using the optical filter arrangement to provide the desired passband characteristics while minimizing chromatic dispersion, as compared with currently-available technologies, will provide a commercially and industrially marketable product currently needed within the art.